Broadcasting human voice to piglets (Sus scrofa domestica) modifies their behavioural reaction to human presence in the home pen and in arena tests

Bensoussan, Sandy; Tigeot, Raphaëlle; Meunier-Salaün, Marie-Christine; Tallet, Céline

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2020.104965

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In addition to the behaviors previously mentioned, the greater latencies to approach and to contact the stockperson, the longer time they spent away from the stockperson and the increased avoidance of physical contact (e.g., greater locomotor activity when the stockperson tried to stroke them and less accepted strokes) suggests that control pigs were not just fearful of a new environment but of the human as well [ 55 ]. These results are in line with previous studies that have shown that pigs receiving a minimal amount of human contact, limited to routine husbandry, are highly fearful of humans compared to pigs exposed to a regular positive contact [ 8 , 11 ] or to daily human presence inside the pen [ 8 , 52 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In the present study, most of the behaviors displayed by the control animals were likely triggered primarily by fear. Unlike the observer pigs, the control pigs were distressed, as indicated by the increase in time spent looking at the stockperson [ 11 , 52 ], the increased amount of low-pitched [ 46 ] and high-pitched vocalizations emitted [ 53 , 54 ], and the occurrence of eliminative behaviors (defecation and urination) during the interaction with the stockperson [ 55 ]. All of these behaviors have been observed in pigs exposed to stressful and negative situations [ 56 ], such as introduction to a novel environment [ 57 ], isolation from conspecifics [ 53 , 57 , 58 ] and confrontation with a human in a human-approach test [ 11 , 55 , 57 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do Domestic Pigs Acquire a Positive Perception of Humans through Observational Social Learning?

Luna

González

Byrd

et al. 2021

Animals

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Farm animals can perceive humans positively by observing another animal being positively handled. This study evaluated whether pigs acquire a positive perception of humans after observing either a high or low socially ranked conspecific receiving gentle handling. Seventy-five 21-week-old pigs were housed in 15 nursery pens (five pigs/pen) and randomly assigned to one of three pen treatments: Dominant Demonstrator Group (DDG), Subordinate Demonstrator Group (SDG) and Control Group (CG). Pigs from DDG and SDG observed a high and low socially ranked conspecific (“demonstrator”), respectively, while the demonstrator received gentle stroking and a sucrose solution for 10 min, twice a day for 5 weeks. Control group pigs received minimal human contact. Following treatment, the behavior and heart rate variability of non-demonstrator pigs were evaluated in response to a stockperson in an open-field test. Pigs from the DDG and SDG contacted the stockperson sooner (p < 0.001), spent more time investigating the stockperson (p < 0.05), accepted more stroking (p < 0.001) and exhibited a lower low/high frequency ratio (p = 0.015) compared to the CG. No differences in learning between the pigs from the DDG and SDG were found. These results suggest that pigs can learn to perceive humans positively through observational social learning, regardless of the demonstrator conspecific’s social rank.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Domestic Pigs Acquire a Positive Perception of Humans through Observational Social Learning?

Luna

González

Byrd

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…More studies are needed to better describe what are the most efficient human signals and behaviors that promote positive emotional states using a multimodal approach: voice? ( 45 ), shape? facial expression?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manipulable Object and Human Contact: Preference and Modulation of Emotional States in Weaned Pigs

et al. 2020

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Enriching the life of farm animals is a legal obligation in intensive farming conditions in the European Union, though not worldwide. In pigs, manipulable materials are mandatory when no bedding is available. Like manipulable objects, positive human interactions might also be considered as enrichment, as they provide the animals with opportunities to interact, increase their activity and lead to positive emotional states. In this study, we investigated how weaned pigs perceived an inanimate manipulable object and a familiar human. After a similar (in length, frequency, and procedure) familiarization to both stimuli, 24 weaned pigs were tested for a potential preference for one of the stimuli and submitted to isolation/reunion tests to evaluate the emotional value of the stimuli. We hypothesized that being reunited with a stimulus would attenuate the stress of social isolation and promote a positive state, especially if the stimulus had a positive emotional value for pigs. Although our behavioral data showed no evidence that pigs spent more time close to, or in contact with, one of the stimuli during a choice test, pigs more often approached the human and were observed lying down only near the human. Using behavioral and bioacoustic data from isolation/reunion tests, we showed that a reunion with the human decreased the time spent in an attentive state and mobility of pigs to a greater extent than a reunion with the object, or isolation. Vocalizations differed between reunions with the object and the human, and were different from those during isolation. The human and object presence led to higher frequency range and more noisy grunts, but only the human led to the production of positive shorter grunts, usually associated with positive situations. In conclusion, pigs seemed to be in a more positive emotional state, or be reassured, in the presence of a familiar human compared to the object after a short period of social isolation. This confirms the potential need for positive pseudo-social interactions with a human to enrich the pigs' environment, at least in or after potentially stressful situations.

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“…As tamed piglets received positive contacts everytime they were in the presence of the human, they may have expected contacts when approaching her and experienced an absence of reward during the test. This has already been hypothetised in piglets deprived from human voice during interactions after a period of habituation to it (Bensoussan et al 2020). Untamed piglet on the contrary never experienced additional positive contacts and being close to the human, having the possibility to investigate her may be some kind of reward after the period of total isolation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Pigs may recognise a human providing positive contacts compared to an unfamiliar one and adapt their behaviour accordingly (Brajon et al, 2015c). Pigs may be sensitive to human voice and respond accordingly (Bensoussan et al, 2019(Bensoussan et al, , 2020. Pigs vocalisations are diverse and linked to their emotional states, attested by the use of positive or negative call types (Briefer et al, 2019(Briefer et al, , 2022 Manuscript -Preprint v3 -Grunt structure and human-pig relationship Tallet et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of pigs vocalisation structure to assess the quality of human-pig relationship

Villain

Guérin

Noûs³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In domestic species, studying human-animal interactions and their consequences on the establishment of a positive Human-Animal Relationship (HAR) would have applications for both improving animal welfare. Objectify the quality of a HAR requires information on several aspects of the animal biology and emotional states (spatial behaviour, physiological and cognitive states). Growing evidence show that acoustic features of animal vocalisations may be a indicators of emotional states. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the quality of vocal expression may indicate the quality of HAR. Thirty piglets were tamed thanks to regular interactions with an experimenter talking and physically interacting with them, three times a day from weaning; while 30 other piglets received only contact necessary for their good breeding. Two weeks later, we recorded behaviours and vocalisations produced in presence of the static experimenter for five minutes. The test was repeated two weeks later, after a period of conditioning using human presence and contacts as a reward for all piglets, supposed to lead to a positive human-piglet relationship for all piglets. As expected, taming led to an attraction toward the experimenter, and, after the conditioning, untamed piglets expressed a similar level of attraction than previously tamed piglets. Tamed piglets generally produced shorter grunts than untamed piglets. However untamed piglets expressed more flexibility in call structure when vocalising close to a human, with a decrease of grunt duration and an increase of pitch, frequency range and noisiness in their grunt. This differential effect of proximity in tamed and untamed piglets was attenuated after the conditioning during a standard reunion with a static human but remained over time when the human was providing additional positive contacts. Results suggest that first, changes in vocal structure are consistent with indicators of positive states in the presence of a human. Second,increasing familiarity and proximity between a human and a piglet may induce changes in the acoustic structure of their grunts. Third, a carrying human trigger more changes in vocalisation structure than by their presence only. We show that vocalisation structure may allow to assess the quality of human-pig relationship.

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Broadcasting human voice to piglets (Sus scrofa domestica) modifies their behavioural reaction to human presence in the home pen and in arena tests

Abstract: Broadcasting human voice to piglets (Sus Scrofa domestica) modifies their behavioural reaction to human presence in the home pen and in arena tests, Applied Animal Behaviour Science (2020), doi:

Cited by 13 publications

References 51 publications

Do Domestic Pigs Acquire a Positive Perception of Humans through Observational Social Learning?

Do Domestic Pigs Acquire a Positive Perception of Humans through Observational Social Learning?

Manipulable Object and Human Contact: Preference and Modulation of Emotional States in Weaned Pigs

The use of pigs vocalisation structure to assess the quality of human-pig relationship

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